Thursday, July 17, 2008

Center of the Universe

OK, so it's been a while since I've posted. I was away on vacation and all of the relaxing and driving just didn't lead to a whole lot of writing. Oh, there were a number of things I considered blogging about, but I was never anywhere near a computer at the time. Who knows, they may have been brilliant, but those thoughts are gone now.

Not surprising to many, my thoughts have been consumed with baby thoughts. I suppose it's natural now that we're just about to t-minus 5 weeks for the due date. Anyway, one of the things I've been thinking about is how the baby shows up thinking it is the center of the universe. Why wouldn't it? For the past 40 weeks baby has lived with Mom attached to it fulfilling it's every need and whim (thankfully whims in the womb are simple). How harsh it must be over the coming months as the baby discovers it is not the center of the universe? Eventually the baby must learn that crying doesn't produce milk or a simple, sweet smile doesn't always get you endless attention. As the baby grows it will learn that Mom and Dad are important, in fact might even continue to rely on them, but also that they are not the only creature in need of Mom and Dad's attention and care. There are just some parts of life they will need to live on their own. It's part of the maturing process.

Doesn't our faith work that way sometimes as well? At some point we mature and begin to realize that we are not the center of the universe? We begin to realize that while we do need God we are not the only ones that need God's attention and care. So we learn to live certain parts of our lives on our own. Oh, we'll always need God, but we may not always need God to hold our hand through every step of the way. That's a good thing. It means we're maturing and realizing we are not the center of the universe. Now, there may be times (like tragedies in life) where we revert to needing God at our side every step of the way and when we don't get it we'll cry louder. In the midst of these storms of life we may cling to things like candles, medallions, or pictures to get us through. This regression of faith just might save our lives, but it is not a mature form of faith.

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